California Proposes Law to Protect Minors from Social Media Addiction

The proposed legislation would require social media platforms to display content in chronological order for users under 18 and includes additional measures to safeguard minors' mental health.

• California legislators have proposed a new law, the Protecting Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, which would require social media companies to turn off their content shuffling algorithms for users under 18 and show them content in chronological order by default.
• The proposed law also includes measures to tighten security protections for minors using social media apps, such as muting notifications between midnight and 6 a.m., capping usage at one hour daily, and removing the visibility of 'like' counts.
• Parents and users would have the ability to change these default settings.
• The proposal follows a series of legislative and regulatory actions taken by California lawmakers aiming to change how social media companies operate, including a lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, alleging that the company designed its apps to addict young users.
• The proposed law is part of a broader effort to protect children from the negative mental health effects of social media use, with research indicating that adolescents who spend more than three hours per day on social media face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes.

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